BX 

9225 

.G878 

N62 

1872 


(^M^-   ^'^U  Cr/j.  y^.xJ^OiU/. 


kW  Of  mticif^ 

JAN    21  1993 


)\ 


BX9225.G878  N62  1872 

t 

Noble,  Mason,  1809- 

-1881 

Discourse 

commemorative 

of 

the 

life  and 

character 

of  Rev. 

Ralph 

Randolph 

Gurley  / 

A  DISCOURSE 


COMMEMOBA.TIVE  OF 


THE   LIFE  AND   CHARACTER 


Rev.  Ralph  Randolph  Gurley, 


MASON    NOBLE,  D.  33., 

Pastor  of  Sixth  Peesbvterian  Church. 


^ublisljcb  at  i^^t  request  of  i^t  g^mtrixan  (S^olonigation  Sotutg." 


WASHINGTON  CITY: 

M'eiLIi  A  WITUEROW,  PKlNTBltS  AND  8TKRE0TYPEES 

1872. 


,^  OF  PRIftCf^ 
m    21  W3 


DISOOTJRSE. 


"  I  am  distressed  for  thee,  ray  brother  ,  .  .  :  very  pleasant  hast  thou 
been  unto  me." — II  Samuel,  1 :  26. 

The  distress  of  David  at  the  death  of  Jonathan,  his  faithful 
friend  and  bi'other,  was  very  deep  and  overwhelming.  The 
love  which  the  noble  young  pi'ince  had  manifested  for  him, 
a  love  unselfish,  strong,  and  unchanging  in  the  most  trying 
circumstances — a  love  which  had  separated  him  from  his 
royal  father,  placed  an  insuperable  obstacle  between  him  and 
the  throne  of  the  kingdom,  and  finally  led  him  to  give  up 
life  itself  on  the  disastrous  battle-field  of  Gilboa — all  this  love 
passes  vividly  before  him,  and  fills  with  its  presence  his  whole 
being. 

The  future,  just  opening  before  him — its  vacant  thi'one,  its 
promises  of  power  and  glory,  its  ambitions  and  its  bloody 
strifes — is  forgotten  in  the  sad  present,  and  in  the  pleasant 
memories  of  his  friend — "Very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto 
me,  my  brother:  thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful."  Over  all 
their  past  relations  does  the  light  of  this  love  shine,  imparting 
new  sweetness  to  their  past  companionship,  and  a  strange 
mystery  to  the  event  which  he  now  deplores. 

I  am  sure  that  I  express  the  sentiment  of  all  your  hearts, 
when  I  say  that  our  distress  at  our  bereavement  to-day  is 
mingled  with  most  pleasant  memories  of  the  beloved  brother 
who  has  been  taken  from  us. 

Rev.  Ralph  Randolph  Gurley  was  a  man  of  very  rare  quali- 
ties, both  of  mind  and  heart,  and  his  life,  protracted  through 
so  many  years,  has  been  full  of  scenes  of  the  profoundost 
interest  to  himself  and  the  world. 

He  was  born  at  Lebanon,  Connecticut,  on  the  26th  of  May, 
1797.     Ilis  father,  the  Rov.  John  Giirloy,  was  the  first  pastor 


of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Lebanon.  His  mother  was 
Mary  Portei",  a  sister  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  David  Porter,  of 
Catskill,  New  York.  Then-  were  five  sons  and  two  daughters 
in  the  family — our  brother  being  the  fifth  child,  and  surviving 
all  his  brothers  and  sisters.  He  was  graduated  at  Yale  College 
in  1818,  and  soon  after  became  a  resident  of  this  city.  In 
1822  he  received  his  appointment  as  Agent  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  and  from  that  time  to  the  present,  a 
period  of  fifty  years,  his  life  has  known  no  other  first  and  all- 
absorbing  object.  For  the  last  few  years  his  connection  with 
the  Society  has  been  only  nominal,  on  account  of  his  physical 
prostration.  But  he  retained  to  the  last  his  interest  in  all  its 
proceedings,  never  yielding  his  conviction  that  the  young 
Republic  of  Liberia  was  destined  to  become  a  mighty  state,  a 
great  centre  of  civilization  and  of  Christianity  for  Africa,  and 
fraught  with  the  highest  blessings  to  her  exiled  children  in 
America.  Whatever  be  the  final  issue  in  the  coming  centu- 
ries, his  name  will  not  be  forgotten  by  the  friends  of  the  Afri- 
can race,  or  by  those  who  can  appreciate  private  worth  or 
public  usefulness. 

I  have  known  him  well  for  forty  years.  I  fii'st  met  him  in 
the  Foui'th  Presbj^terian  Church  of  this  city,  in  the  spring  of 
1832,  on  the  day  on  which  I  commenced  my  ministry  among 
that  people.  Prom  that  time  to  the  present,  I  have  been  on 
the  most  intimate  terms  with  him  as  a  friend  and  brother. 
For  several  years  I  sustained  toward  him  and  his  family  the 
sacred  relation  of  christian  pastor,  and  our  intercourse  has 
ever  been  most  unreserved.  I  have,  of  course,  known  him  as 
thoroughly  as  it  is  permitted  us  to  know  the  upright  in  heart; 
and  in  looking  back  to-day  over  the  scenes  of  his  busy  life,  the 
first  and  deepest  impression  with  such  a  review  makes  upon 
me  is — 

1.   His  love  op  his  fellow-men. 

There  are  times,  I  trust,  when  we  all  forget  ourselves  in  the 
interest  which  we  feel  in  the  good  or  evil  fortune  of  others. 
But  with  him  it  was  a  constant  experience:  I  have  sometimes 
thought  it  was  his  ruling  passion,  so  quick  was  he  to  see  the 
wants  of  others,  and  so  prompt  and  skillful  in  bringing  relief. 


Among  many  deeds  of  kindness,  with  which  his  life  was 
filled,  I  remember  one  described  to  me  during  the  first  year  of 
my  residence  in  Washington,  by  a  gentleman  who  was  familiar 
with  the  facts.  A  poor  widow,  whose  husband  had  been  dead 
only  a  few  days,  was  lying  ill  in  a  wretched  hovel.  Her  only 
child  was  also  sick,  and  tliey  were  both  destitute  of  the  com- 
mon comforts  of  life;  there  was  no  food  and  no  fire.  He  heard 
of  the  distress,  and  went  in  person  to  minister.  His  quick  eye 
saw,  and  his  large  lieart  took  in,  the  whole  state  of  things. 
He  made  a  fire,  he  brought  food,  he  boiled  the  teakettle,  and  made 
a  cup  of  tea,  and  thus  efficiently  relieved  the  necessities  of  the 
Buff'ering. 

As  I  knew  more  of  him,  I  learned  that  this  was  only  an 
illustration  of  his  mode  of  doing  good.  He  was  sure  to  find 
out  suifering,  and  to  attempt  to  relieve  it.  During  these  many 
years  that  have  since  passed,  he  has  gone  in  and  out  among 
the  homes  of  the  poor,  found  suffering  where  others  did  not 
know  of  its  existence,  and  parted  with  the  last  shilling  in  his 
own  limited  purse,  that  he  might  comfort  others. 

It  is  well  known,  to  all  familiar  with  his  ways,  that  he  not 
unfrequently  embarrassed  himself  by  his  great  generosity  to 
the  suffering  poor:  this  was  specially  the  case  in  his  tender 
sympathy  for  the  colored  people. 

In  the  second  or  third  year  of  my  residence  here,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  his  library  and  furniture  were  to  be  sold  at 
public  auction,  and  his  pleasant  home  to  be  exchanged  for  a 
boarding-house.  On  inquiry,  I  ascertained  that  a  colored 
family  were  about  to  be  sold  and  separated  from  each  other 
in  perpetual  bondage  in  the  distant  South.  To  save  them  from 
their  sad  fate,  ho  became  personall}''  responsible  for  the  money 
necessary  to  redeem  them.  When  the  time  of  meeting  his 
obligations  arrived,  there  was  no  other  way  to  secure  his 
object  but  the  sacrifice  of  his  home,  and  of  those  literary  treas- 
ures which  were  dearer  to  him  than  gold.  I  was  present  at 
the  sale,  and  saw  his  books,  which  wei-e  principally  the  choicest 
editions  of  the  ancient  and  the  Knglish  classless,  and  arranged 
in  a  book-case,  which  his  own  exquisite  taste  had  invented,  all 
knocked  down  to  the  highest  bidder.  But  groat  as  was  the 
sacrifice,  it  did  not  prove  sufiicient  I'or  his  relief,  and  he  lived 


for  several  years  meekly   and    uncomplainingly  under  the 
burden. 

His  whole  life  was,  in  fact,  one  of  obedience  to  the  divine 
law:  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of 
Christ."  He  came  nearer  than  any  man  I  ever  knew  to  the 
example  of  Christ,  washing  the  feet  of  unworthy  and  worthy 
men,  not  passing  by  the  traitor  Judas,  and  by  gentleness  over- 
coming the  resistance  of  the  warm-hearted  and  impulsive 
Peter.  He  was  worthy  to  stand  by  the  side  of  Abon  Ben 
Adhem,  described  in  eastern  fable,  who 

"Awoke  one  night  from  a  deep  dream  of  peace, 
And  saw  within  the  moonlight  of  his  room — 
Making  it  rich  like  a  lily  in  bloom — 
An  angel  writing  in  a  book  of  gold  ! 
Exceeding  peace  had  made  Ben  Adhem  bold, 
And  to  the  presence  in  the  room  he  said: 
'What  writest  thou?'  The  vision  raised  his  head, 
And  in  a  voice,  made  all  of  sweet  accord. 
Answered:  'The  names  of  those  who  love  the  Lord.' 
And  is  mine  one?  said  Adhem,  '  Nay;  not  so,' 
•  Replied  the  angel.    Adhem  spake  more  low. 
But  cheerly  still,  I  pray  thee,  then. 
Write  me  as  one  who  loves  his  fellow-men.' 
The  angel  rose  and  vanished.     The  next  night 
He  came  again,  with  a  great  wakening  light, 
And  showed  the  names  that  love  of  God  had  blest ; 
And  lo!  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest." 

Now,  our  brother  loved  God  with  a  most  reverent,  deep,  and 
all-controlling  love.  It  was  the  supreme  joy  of  his  life.  He 
prized  being  enrolled  among  those  who  loved  the  Lord,  as  the 
very  highest  attainment  which  a  man  could  make.  And 
in  his  sense  of  deficiency  in  this  respect,  and  from  his  spirit  of 
consecration  to  Him  who  said,  "One  is  your  master,  even 
Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren,"  he  turned  with  an  humble 
and  loving  heart  to  his  fellow-men.  The  divine  in  man  seemed 
ever  before  him.  All  the  lowly  were  to  him  the  sons  of  God. 
The  oppressed  race  were  "colored  men."  His  enemies  even 
were  mistaken  and  "imperfect"  friends.  He  ever  recognized 
the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  and  felt  that  thej^  were  all  children 
of  the  same  Heavenly  Father.  He  was  a  Christian  through 
and  through:  "in  all  things  shewing  himself  a  pattern  of  good 


works;  in  doctrine  shewing  uncorruptness,  gravity,  sincerity, 
80  that  he  that  was  of  the  contrary  part  was  ashamed,  having 
no  evil  thing  to  say  of  him."  His  truth,  his  goodness,  his 
humility,  his  want  of  self-assertion,  his  gentleness,  his  patience 
with  unreasonable  men,  his  submission  to  God  in  the  midst  of 
disappointed  hopes  and  deranged  plans  of  life,  and  under  the 
bereavements  which  desolated  his  home  and  the  personal  sick- 
ness which  made  him  a  helpless  invalid  for  so  many  years, 
and  above  all  his  constant  trust  in  the  sacrificial  work  of  a 
divine  Saviour  for  the  pardon  of  his  sins — all  proved  him  to  be 
a  living  Christian — and  yet  the  more  thoroughly  yov  knew 
him  the  deeper  was  the  impression  that  his  constant  prayer 

was — 

"  Write  me  as  one  who  loves  his  fellow-men ! " 

Another  very  pleasant  memory  of  our  brother  is — 

2.  His  high  intellectual  culture. 

I  am  not  informed  in  relation  to  the  early  training  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  tastes  and  habits  as  a  scholar.  I 
only  know  that  as  a  literary  man  he  stood  among  the  first  in 
his  class  during  the  last  year  of  his  college  life.  Said  the  Rev. 
O.  Eastman,  one  of  the  venerable  Secretaries  of  the  American 
Tract  Society,  in  a  letter  to  me  about  a  year  since:  "I  have 
known  Mr.  Gurley  since  September,  1817,  more  than  fifty-three 
years.  He  was  a  senior  when  I  was  a  freshman  in  Yale 
College.  When  my  class  was  admitted  into  the  Brother's 
Society,  he  made  an  address  from  the  President's  chair.  I 
have  ever  since  entertained  a  high  respect  for  him." 

His  position  among  men  of  culture  was  never  lost.  His  con- 
nection with  a  great  National  Society  would  prevent  him 
from  pursuing  steadily  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics, 
or  investigating  thoroughly  the  great  questions  of  natural 
science,  or  becoming  a  leader  in  the  discussion  of  abstruse 
metaphysics.  But  he  followed  these  studios  and  discussions 
with  interest,  and  was  abreast  of  the  times  in  their  controlling 
thoughts  and  opinions.  In  his  theology,  he  was  in  sympathy 
with  those  who  entertained  the  grandest  conceptions  of  the 
love  of  God  in  the  GosjjcI  of  His  Son:  believing  that  "light 
and  not  darkness,  love  and  not  necessitj',  are  at  the  innermost 


heart  of  all,"  his  culture  as  a  Christian  theologian  began,  if  it 
did  not  end,  in  the  recognition  of  this  wonderful  and  blessed 
truth. 

But  there  was  one  field  of  learning  which  had  irresistible 
charms  for  him,  and  in  this  he  gathered  much  "gold  and  silver 
and  precious  stones."  No  one  could  hear  him  talk  or  preach, 
or  read  his  books,  or  listen  to  his  fervid  and  eloquent  appeals 
in  behalf  of  the  Colonization  cause,  without  feeling  that  the 
spirit  of  the  old  English  classics  had  breathed  its  inspiration 
upon  all  his  powers.  His  library  was  filled  with  books  of  this 
class.  Behind  the  green  curtains,  which  hung  on  bright  rings 
and  in  graceful  folds  before  his  elegant  book-case,  were  seen 
"peeping  out"  his  choicest  volumes  of  Lord  Bacon,  and  Milton, 
and  Shakspeare,  and  Akenside,  and  South,  and  Barrow,  and 
Bishop  Butler,  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  Tillotson,  and  Eobert 
Boyle  on  Seraphic  Love,  and  the  "judicious"  Fuller,  and  many 
others.  These  were,  I  think,  his  favorites  and  his  daily  com- 
panions. There  was  in  the  peculiar  structure  of  his  own  mind 
an  uncommon  adaptation  to  those  old  masters  of  elevated  and 
beautiful  thought.  He  read  and  pondered  them  with  the  keen- 
est relish,  and  their  ideas  and  tastes  became  a  part  of  his  own 
being,  so  that,  without  consciousness  and  without  plagiarism, 
he  both  spoke  and  wrote  in  their  lofty  style  of  pure  old  Eng- 
lish eloquence.  Were  this  the  proper  time  and  place,  I  could 
verify  this  remark  by  quotations  from  his  "Life  of  Ashraun," 
his  correspondence  with  Sir  Thomas  Powell  Buxton,  of  England, 
and  even  from  his  Annual  Eeports  of  the  American  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  which  were  always  regarded  as  an  intellectual 
treat  by  his  friends  in  Washington  and  thi^oughout  the  country. 

When  he  reached  the  maturity  of  his  strength,  some  twenty 
years  ago,  his  mind  had  become  very  rich  and  fruitful.  His 
])erception  of  truth  in  its  more  delicate  relations  was  very 
vivid,  and  when  he  stood  before  men  and  reasoned  with  them, 
his  argument  was  always  strong  with  the  logic  of  facts,  while 
over  all  his  discourse  his  brillmnt  imagination  and  pure  taste 
cast  their  most  attractive  and  charming  influence. 

He  was,  in  fact,  a  poet  in  the  highest  sense;  not  only  writing 
beautiful  verses  in  exquisite  numbers,  but  living  in  closest  sym- 
patb}^  with  all  nature,  material  and  spiritual,  enjoying  a  clear 


insight  into  many  of  her  mysteries,  anl  a  true  appreciation  of 
lior  rich  and  Tnanifold  instruction. 

I  have  said  that  his  mind  was  fruitful.  He  was,  indeed,  ever 
at  work  and  accomplishing  results.  There  are  three  volumes 
from  his  pen  known  and  liighly  appreciated  by  his  friends, 
and  which  will  establish  his  reputation  as  one  of  our  first  Amer- 
ican writers.  They  are  "The  Life  of  Ashmun,"  "Gurley's  Mis- 
sion to  England,"  and  "The  Life  and  Eloquence  of  Larned." 
The  first  is  the  most  elaborate,  being  a  large  octavo  volume  of 
over  five  hundred  pages.  It  was  written,  as  I  remember  well, 
in  the  midst  of  the  most  pressing  duties,  lie  giving  to  its  pre- 
paration the  small  hours  of  the  night  after  the  labors  of  his 
office  were  ended. 

His  "Mission  to  England"  is  the  history  of  his  endeavors  to 
bring  the  leading  philanthropists  of  England  into  an  earnest 
sympathy  and  co-operation  with  the  American  Colonization 
Society. 

His  "Life  and  Eloquence  of  Larned"  is  a  worthy  tribute 
to  one  of  the  most  eloquent  young  divines  that  ever  filled  an 
American  pulpit,  and  who  finally  laid  down  his  life  in  the 
midst  of  the  pestilence  at  New  Orleans,  as  a  willing  sacrifice 
to  duty  to  the  Presbyterian  church  of  which  he  was  the  first 
pastor. 

In  addition  to  these  published  volumes,  he  maintained  a  con- 
stant and  extensive  correspondence  with  every  part  of  our 
country  and  with  Liberia.  He  had  also  the  entire  editorial 
responsibility  of  the  monthly  publication  of  the  African 
REPosiroRY,  as  well  as  the  preparation  of  the  Annual  Reports 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society. 

If  all  his  writings  could  be  collected,  they  would  make  many 
large  volumes,  full  of  noble  Christian  thoughts  of  the  rights  of 
man  and  of  the  duty  of  governments  to  bre.ak  every  j^oke,  and 
lift  up  the  oppressed  of  all  nations. 

But  while  the  memory  of  his  rich  aiul  fruitful  inlellect  is  so 
pleasant  to  his  friends,  wo  cannot  forget — 

3.    His    FAITHFULNESS,  SELF-DENIAL,  AND   POWER  AS  A  PREACHER 

OF  THE  Gospel. 

Though  he  was  never  ordained  or  installed  over  any  par- 
ticular church  as  ])astor,  yet  his  connection  with  the  churches 


10 

of  our  Presbytery  was  of  the  most  intimate  character,  and  his 
services  in  our  pulpits  were  most  eagerly  sought  and  delighted 
in.  Indeed,  he  was  not  more  universally  beloved  as  a,  man 
than  prized  as  a  preacher  of  Christ.  All  denominations  were 
attracted  towards  him,  so  that  his  Sabbaths  were  as  full  of 
service  as  if  he  were  a  pastor.  In  the  colored  churches,  at  the 
poor-house,  at  the  jail,  and  in  the  penitentiary,  he  greatly  mag- 
nified his  ofl&ce;  while  the  amount  of  labor  he  pei'formed,  with- 
out fee  or  reward,  in  supplying  the  pulpits  of  sick  or  absent 
pastors,  and  in  attending  funerals  among  the  poor,  laid  all  our 
churches  under  the  very  highest  obligations  to  him  and  his 
family.  Such  incessant  labors,  added  as  they  were  to  the  ex- 
hausting duties  of  his  office,  were  of  course  a  constant  inter- 
ference with  his  physical  as  well  as  mental  comfort.  But 
personal  fatigue,  ordinary  sickness,  deprivation  of  his  literary 
reading,  and  of  the  society  of  his  family  and  friends,  were  all 
forgotten  when  he  was  asked  to  speak  for  Christ,  and  lead  the 
devotions  of  His  peojjle.  Ordinarily  his  sermons  were  a  very 
simple  and  loving  exhibition  of  some  common  truth.  The 
precept  or  the  promise,  the  doctrine  or  the  warning,  which 
for  the  time  he  held  up  before  his  hearers,  came  to  them  all 
glowing  with  the  love  to  Grod  and  man  which  burned  in  his 
own  heart.  Sometimes,  on  ordinary  occasions  even,  he  rose 
to  the  sublimest  heights  of  pulpit  eloquence;  and  while  his 
soul  seemed  to  be  all  on  fire  with  the  thoughts  within  him, 
his  manner  was  most  gentle  and  sweet  and  winning  and  over- 
powering. Those  of  the  present  generation  who  have  known 
Mr.  Gurley  only  in  the  comparative  feebleness  of  the  last  fifteen 
years,  have  no  true  or  worthy  conception  of  his  power  in  the 
pulpit.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  a  living  picture  of  him  as  he 
sometimes  stood  before  men  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  of 
suffering  humanity — for  the  two  were  always  united  in  his 
mind. 

In  his  person  he  was,  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood,  remark- 
ably handsome;  like  David,  "he  was  ruddy,  and  withal  of  a 
beautiful  countenance,  and  goodly  to  look  to."  When  he  arose 
and  announced  his  text,  your  sympathy  was  instantly  excited, 
but  more  at  first  for  himself  than  for  the  truth  which  he  ut- 
tered.    Ho  was  timid,  hesitating,  and  embarrassed;  his  voice 


11 

was  low  and  tremulous  with  emotion,  and  his  look  uncertain, 
if  not  deprecatory.  As  ho  proceeded  in  his  simple,  though 
embarrassed  way,  he  soon  forgot  himself  and  others,  in  the 
clear  vision  of  his  subject  as  it  opened  before  him.  He  would 
then  unconsciously  lift  up  his  tall  person  to  his  full  height, 
stand  straight  and  firm  upon  his  feet,  twine  his  fingers  in  his 
long  black  hair,  and  throw  it  away  from  his  noble  white 
forehead,  and,  in  gestures  expressing  his  emotions,  and  in 
words  of  purest  English  formed  into  sentences  of  the  rarest 
harmony  and  force,  he  would  turn  your  fears  for  him  into  ad- 
miration of  the  man,  and  finally  into  forgetfulness  of  every- 
thing but  the  truth  which  inspired  him.  On  such  occasions, 
as  was  said  of  a  great  poet,  his  features  were  "like  a  beautiful 
alabaster  vase,  seen  to  perfection  only  when  lighted  up  from 
within,"  and  the  words  of  his  lij)s  penetrated  your  inmost 
being. 

His  sermons  were  never  written.  He  did  not  carry  even  a 
brief  or  a  skeleton  into  the  pulpit  to  guide  his  thoughts.  He 
said  that  he  was  embarrassed  rather  than  aided  by  such 
helps.  His  thoughts,  however,  were  the  fruit  of  much  pre- 
vious study,  and  his  language  was  as  choice  and  appropriate 
in  his  extemporaneous  address  as  when  he  held  his  pen  in  the 
quiet  of  his  study.  If  he  had  devoted  himself  exclusively  to 
pulpit  oratory,  I  have  sometimes  thought  he  would  have 
united  in  himself  the  dazzling  eloquence  of  our  American 
Larned,  with  the  clear  and  finished  reasoning  of  Henry  Mel- 
vill,  of  London,  of  whose  preaching  he  was  accustomed  to 
speak  with  much  enthusiasm.  As  it  is,  the  memory  of  his 
power  as  a  preacher  will  ever  be  pleasant  to  his  friends. 

But  it  is  his  character,  as  connected  with  the  attempted 
elevation  of  the  colored  race,  that  will  ever  claim  our  special 
admiration.     I  would,  therefore,  invito  your  attention  to 

4.   His  consecration  to  his  life-work  as  Secretary  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society. 

He  was  called  into  the  service  of  the  Society  in  the  enthusi- 
asm of  his  youth,  and  devoted  to  its  interests  his  best  ])Owers 
for  a  long  and  busy  life. 

The  sublime  object  of  the  Society  was,  in  Mr.  Caa-lcys  uwu 


12 

words,  'Ho  restore  a  degraded  people,  loDg  exiled  from  their 
mother  country,  to  their  own  distant  and  barbarous  shore,  and 
there  elevate  them  to  a  national  existence,  informed  and  dig- 
nified with  the  spirit  of  law,  literature,  liberty,  and  Christianity, 
that  by  their  example  and  achievements  the  light  of  a  new 
day  might  dawn  upon  Africa,  and  the  day-star  arise  in  their 
hearts." 

This  was  the  beautiful  ideal  which  ever  kindled  his  imagina- 
tion, and  called  forth  all  the  natural  and  generous  benevolence 
of  his  heart. 

His  first  work  was  in  Washington.  Here  in  his  office  there 
was  more  than  enough  to  engage  all  his  powers.  There  was 
daily  correspondence  with  the  patrons  of  the  Society,  planning 
expeditions  of  colonists,  and  preparing  and  superintending 
their  outfits,  regulating  the  affairs  of  the  infant  colony,  editing 
the  Repository,  and  writing  for  the  press  generally  to  defend 
the  Colonization  cause.  To  use  again  his  own  language,  "they 
commenced  their  enterprise  without  resources,  unsustained  by 
general  opinion,  and  opposed  by  forces  arrayed  on  opposite 
grounds  and  in  different  and  oj^posite  sections  of  the  country." 
This  state  of  things  demanded  not  only  the  constant  use  of  the 
public  press,  but  his  personal  presence  in  every  part  of  the 
land.  In  obedience  to  this  summons,  he  frequently  left  the 
quiet  of  his  home,  and  visited  the  principal  cities  both  North 
and  South  ;  occupying  pulpits  on  the  Sabbath  and  public  halls 
during  the  week,  encouraging  friends  and  convincing  enemies 
of  the  scheme.  He  was  found  sometimes  holding  private  in- 
terviews with  gentlemen  on  their  great  plantations  in  the 
South,  and  with  Christian  merchants  in  their  counting-rooms 
in  the  North.  At  other  times  he  was  meeting  opponents  in 
public  debate,  and  the  clash  of  arms  was  sometimes  very  loud 
and  stirring,  as  he  fought  the  good  fight  in  Boston  and  in  Cin- 
cinnati, and  in  other  cities  of  the  East  and  West. 

But  he  did  not  confine  his  personal  labors  to  his  own  coun- 
try. He  made  several  voyages  aci-oss  the  Atlantic — thrice  to 
Africa  and  once  to  Europe.  His  first  visit  to  Africa  was  in  the 
early  history  of  the  colony,  during  the  life  of  the  Colonial 
Agent,  Ashmuh,  when  the  affairs  of  the  colony  were  in  almost 
hopeless  entanglement,  and  the  whole  enterprise  in  danger  of 


13 

irretrievable  disaster.  That  visit  and  its  benefits  to  Liberia 
will  ever  be  one  of  the  brightest  chapters  in  the  history  of  her 
early  struggles  for  existence,  and  an  illustration  and  proof  of 
his  fidelity  and  wisdom  as  a  mediator  among  men.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that,  by  his  love  and  patience  and  energy 
the  character  of  Mr.  Ashman  was  fully  vindicated  before  the 
world,  the  relations  between  him  and  the  colonists  restored  to 
more  than  their  original  harmony,  and  the  colony  itself  brought 
into  a  state  of  stable  and  permanent  prosperity. 

According  to  Dr.  Tracy's  Historical  Discourse,  Mr.  Grurley 
also  at  this  time  had  the  responsibility  of  originating  the 
plan  of  government  for  Liberia.  He  says:  "It  is  enough 
for  his  glory  that  ho  alone  among  white  men  saw  the  safety 
of  trusting  a  negro  people  with  some  part  in  the  management 
of  their  own  concerns;  and  that  by  boldly  acting  on  his  belief, 
he  placed  his  name  on  the  not  long  list  of  legislators  whose 
wisdom  organized  States  on  principles  that  secured  peace, 
permanency,  coherence,  and  a  healthy  growth." 

Mr  Gurley's  second  visit  to  Liberia  was  in  1849,  under  in- 
structions from  the  United  States  Government.  On  his  return 
he  made  a  report  on  the  condition  and  prospects  of  that  Repub- 
lic, which  was  printed  by  order  of  Congress,  and  was  warmly 
commended  by  Henry  Clay  and  others. 

His  third  visit  was  of  comparatively  recent  date,  being  one 
of  the  last  great  efforts  of  his  active  life.  After  the  many 
struggles,  discouragements,  and  disasters  through  which  the 
Society  and  the  colony  had  passed,  it  was  his  privilege  to 
stand  once  more  on  those  distant  shores,  and  look  upon  the 
young  ''liepublic  of  Liberia,"  her  independence  acknowledged 
by  the  leading  Christian  Governments  of  the  world,  iier  peo- 
ple enjoying  all  the  rights  of  freemen,  and  her  future  as  cer- 
tain as  Christian  churches,  and  free  schools,  and  a  college,  and 
a  prosperous  community  could  make  it. 

His  visit  to  Great  Britain  is  fresh  in  the  memory  of  many  of 
his  friends.  Its  object  was  to  confer  with  the  lea-ding  philan- 
thropists of  England,  and  enlist  them,  if  possible,  in  the  great 
work  of  colonizing  Africa.  Though  lie  failed  in  Hccuring  that 
object,  he  performed  a  very  important  woik.  In  a  wriiten 
"testimonial,"  signed  by  forty  gentlemen  in  London,  and  pre- 


14 

sented  to  him  a  few  days  before  he  sailed  for  home,  it  is  said  : 
"  Where  some  men  would  have  abandoned  the  undertaking  in 
despair,  or  risked  its  future  success  by  the  indiscretions  of  a 
hasty  zeal,  he  pursued  his  objects  with  a  calm  and  patient  per- 
severance, that  won  the  personal  esteem  even  of  many  who 
continued  adverse  to  the  principles  of  the  Colonization  Society. 
During  the  period  of  his  residence  in  England,  he  has  been  as- 
siduously occupied  in  diffusing  information  through  all  accessi- 
ble channels  of  publicity.  And  it  may  be  confidently  asserted, 
that  while  his  statements  deeply  interested  all  who  were  for- 
tunate enough  to  have  the  advantage  of  hearing  them,  they 
brought  conviction  to  the  minds  of  some  who  had  previously 
been  either  doubtful  or  opposed." 

This  testimonial  brings  into  a  clear  light  the  characteristics 
of  Mr.  Gurley's  mode  of  working,  as  well  as  its  spirit.  His  zeal 
knew  no  abatement,  and  his  temper  lost  nothing  of  its  sweet- 
ness in  the  midst  of  the  most  decided  and  even  violent  oppo- 
sition. 

In  relation  to  the  financial  success  of  the  Society,  it  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Gurley  felt  that  money  was  the  very  "sinews 
of  war,"  in  the  great  struggle  to  establish  and  maintain  a 
flourishing  colony  in  Africa;  and  the  success  of  the  Society 
in  this  respect  was  promising.  When  he  first  became  its 
Agent,  in  1822,  its  income  for  that  year  was  only  $778. 
From  that  time  it  increased  regularly  for  the  next  ten  years, 
as  follows:  $5,000,  $10,000,  $14,000,  $19,000,  $26,000,  $28,000, 
up  to  $40,000.  Still  there  was,  in  his  judgment,  something 
far  better  than  this  to  be  continually  aimed  at  and  secured. 
He  would  fill  the  public  mind  with  great  and  worthy  ideas 
of  the  ultimate  object  which  the  Society  had  in  view,  both 
for  this  country  and  Africa.  True  and  enlarged  views,  in 
his  opinion,  would  not  only  secure  all  the  material  aid  neces- 
sary, but  finally  unite  all  good  men,  and  so  enlist  the  nation, 
North  and  South,  in  the  work,  that  it  would  become  a  magnifi- 
cent Government  enterprise.  In  that  faith  he  lived  and 
labored;  hence  his  comparative  indifi'erence  to  mere  finance. 
Mr.  Gurley  was  looking  at  public  opinion,  and  its  power  over 
the  greatest  and  the  gravest  questions  connected  with  the  Af- 
rican race.    He  believed  in  the  mighty  influence  of  good  men. 


15 

and  was  ever  pressing  upon  them  his  sacred  cause — pleading 
with  statesmen,  clergymen,  merchants,  editors,  and  educators 
of  the  people. 

The  simple  fact  was,  that  his  entire  active  life  was  devoted 
to  this  work.  He  thought  and  planned  and  toiled ;  he  wrote 
and  spoke  and  reasoned  and  prayed  and  suffered  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  negro  race.  In  proportion  as  he  loved  his  fellow- 
men,  ho  hated  the  oppressions  of  slavery.  Though  called  a 
pro-slavery  man  by  his  enemies,  he  spoke  of  it  boldly  in  these  , 
burning  words:  "Its  perpetuity  is  irreconcilable  with  the 
nature  of  our  institutions,  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  the  order 
of  Providence.  It  stands  in  the  temple  of  our  freedom,  like  the 
image  of  death  at  the  Egyptian  festivities,  to  sadden  our 
thoughts,  to  cloud  the  light,  and  tune  to  melancholy  the  in- 
struments of  joy."  "Let  him  who  inculcates  the  dogma,  that 
the  liberty  of  one  portion  of  mankind  must  be  perpetually 
dependent  for  existence  on  the  slavery  of  another,  expect  few 
disciples  in  this  land,  until  the  signatures  which  the  Genius  of 
Liberty  has  carved  in  our  mountains  be  forever  erased,  and  her 
glorious  banner,  now  waving  over  us,  be  taken  down  forever. 
Let  him  ask  for  proselytes  among  the  Arabs  of  the  desert,  or 
the  awe-struck  minions  of  despotic  power,  but  expect  not  his 
doctrineto  prevail  among  a  people  who  have  already  taught 
wisdom  to  kings,  and  thundered  forth  the  truth  that  makes  the 
spirit  of  man  free  in  the  ears  of  an  astonished  world." 

His  books,  his  speeches,  his  editorials  in  the  EepositorYi 
his  Annual  Eeports,  and  his  correspondence  with  Henry  Clay 
and  with  Sir  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton,  of  England,  are  full  of 
these  generous  outbursts  in  behalf  of  universal  freedom.  Yet 
he  held  so  firmly  to  the  old  ideas  that  the  States  themselves 
must  eventually  proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land,  or  that 
the  providence  of  God  would  in  some  other  way,  unknown  and 
unanticipated  by  us,  bring  to  an  end  the  great  oppression,  that 
ho  was  unmoved  by  all  the  misrepresentations  of  himself  and 
of  Colonization  on  the  part  of  those  who  considered  themselves 
the  exclusive  friends  of  the  colored  race.  "Without  impugning 
their  motives,  he  felt  that  they  were  mistaken  in  their  mode 
of  working.  Such  men  as  Gerrit  Smith  and  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  and  the  class  they  represent,  he  honored  as  bold 


16 

and  disinterested  men — men  who  were  ready  to  risk  their 
reputation  and  their  life  in  a  most  unpopular  cause,  and  from 
most  philanthropic  motives.  But  he  had  no  confidence  in  their 
wisdom;  neither  did  he  share  in  the  opinion  of  some,  that  to 
them  was  to  be  attributed  the  grand  result  of  universal  eman- 
cipation when  it  came. 

And  in  vindication  of  his  just  fame,  and  in  the  home  of  his 
earnest  and  loving  labors  for  the  last  fifty  years,  I  desire  to 
say,  that  it  was  the  view  which  Mr.  Gurley  entertained  of 
slavery  and  of  the  national  compact,  and  of  the  wondei'-work- 
ing  providence  of  Grod,  that  finally  pervaded  and  controlled 
the  American  mind.  In  the  Church,  among  her  ministers, 
and  throughout  all  classes  of  the  people,  in  the  free  States, 
there  was  a  most  intense  aversion  to  slavery,  mingled  with 
the  deepest  love  of  the  nation,  and  a  longing  for  deliverance 
from  a  national  humiliation  and  a  grievous  wrong;  and  yet 
they  did  not  see  how  the  good  of  the  oppressed  could  be  se- 
cui-ed  by  national  violence. 

What,  then,  did  secure  the  final  result?  It  was  the  volun- 
tary withdrawal  of  States  from  the  authority  and  privileges 
of  the  national  compact,  and  their  armed  resistance  to  its 
claims.  What  Mr.  Grarrison  and  his  fi'iends  did  in  theory  to 
destroy  slavery,  the  seceding  States  did  in  fact  to  "conserve" 
it.  In  thus  separating  themselves  violently  from  the  nation, 
they  surrendered  the  rights  which  had  been  secured  to  them 
by  the  national  compact.  Then  came  the  great  uprising  of 
the  people  to  preserve  the  nation's  life,  and  in  that  struggle 
the  conflict  between  the  claims  of  the  negro  and  the  life  of  the 
nation  ceased  forever.  They  had  become,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  one  and  the  same.  The  hands  on  the  great  clock  of 
time  had  suddenly  gone  forward,  and  the  hour  of  emancipa- 
tion struck  so  loud  and  clear,  that  the  good,  the  pure,  the 
strong,  the  patriotic,  the  conscientious,  the  conservative,  heard 
it,  and  rose  up  as  at  the  voice  of  God  himself.  In  the  Church, 
Dr.  Skinner  and  Dr.  Spring;  Dr.  Tyng  and  Dr.  Vinton;  Bishop 
Janes  and  Dr.  Williams,  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  they 
represented  in  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  leading 
evangelical  denominations;  in  the  State,  President  Lincoln 
and  General  Dix  and  General  Grant,  who  had  always  strug- 


17 

gled  Lo  uphold  the  nationa,!  compact,  and  were  now  conse- 
crated to  the  same  ideas,  as  expressed  in  the  immortal  letter 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  on  tlie  relations  of  slavery  to  the  Union;  and 
the  millions  of  people,  whose  opinions  had  been  as  conserva- 
tive as  theirs,  all  now  rallied  around  the  banner  of  universal 
freedom,  and  bore  it  on  high  and  onward  to  victory.  And  in 
the  front  rank  of  all  stood  Ealph  Randolph  Gurley.  Inti- 
mately associated  as  ho  had  ever  been  with  some  of  the  best 
and  strongest  of  those  who  now  trampled  on  the  dear  old  flag, 
he  did  not  hesitate  a  moment.  I  can  never  forget  how  his 
eyes  sparkled  with  new  hope  for  the  afflicted  children  of  Africa, 
as  we  talked  together  of  that  providence  of  God  by  which  an 
evil  that  had  seemed  to  defy  all  human  remedies  had  at  last 
vanished  like  a  dream,  and  left  the  whole  land  lighted  up  with 
the  brightness  of  universal  freedom. 

In  the  splendor  of  such  a  result,  which  the  love  and  teach- 
ings and  labors  of  his  life  had  done  so  much  to  produce,  we 
leave  him ;  for  it  is  a  splendor  which  shall  never  die. 

In  the  concluding  words  of  his  own  "Life  of  Ashmun,"  I 
would  say,  changing  only  a  word  or  two,  to  adapt  it  more  per- 
fectly to  our  brother  and  the  present  time — 

"Thou  hast  not  lived,  thou  hast  not  labored  in  vain.  I  hear 
responded  from  ten  thousand  tongues,  thou  hast  not  lived,  thou 
hast  not  labored  in  vain.  The  light  thou  hast  kindled  in  Africa 
shall  never  go  out.  The  principles  thou  hast  exemplified  are 
true  and  everlasting.  Thy  country  is  doing  justice^  for  now, 
in  all  her  borders,  no  fetter  is  worn  by  the  guiltless;  and  when 
upon  Africa  thy  country  shall  have  conferred,  in  the  free  spirit 
of  the  Great  Master  of  Christians,  her  language,  her  liberty, 
and  her  religion,  and  the  honors  of  all  nations  shall  be  cluster- 
ing thick  upon  her,  Africa,  America,  the  world,  shall  know 
thou  hast  not  lived,  thou  hast  not  labored  in  vain." 

Though  I  fear  that  I  may  have  wearied  your  patience 
already,  yet  I  cannot  conclude  without  i-eminding  you  how 
very  pleasant  to  his  friends  is — 

5.    The  memory  ov  his  truly  Chrfstian  home. 

His  home  is  a  place  almost  too  sacred  for  us  to  enter,  and 
yet  I  cannot  forbear  saying  to  you  wiio  loved  him,  that  it  was 


18 

such  a  home  as  the  character  of  such  a  man,  united  to  the 
loveliest  of  Christian  women,  could  create.  The  ministries  of 
Christian  affection  were  never  more  beautifully  exemplified  in 
husband  and  wife  and  in  parents  and  children.  In  that  circle 
you  felt  encompassed  by  an  atmosphere  of  love,  where  mutual 
esteem  and  kindness  and  gentleness  and  forbearance  and  dis- 
interestedness reigned  supreme.  It  was  not  a  family  affection, 
selfish  and  exclusive,  mixed  up  with  family  pride  and  envy  of 
others.  Their  united  love  was  a  full  and  overflowing  spring 
of  living  water,  pouring  itself  forth  most  lavishly  on  every 
side,  especially  on  the  poor  and  the  suffering,  so  that  they 
seemed  absolutely  to  forget  their  own  sorrows  in  their  sym- 
pathy for  others.  Lovely  and  pleasant  were  our  brother  and 
sister  in  their  lives,  and  in  their  death  they  were  scarcely 
divided. 

I  had  the  mournful  pleasure  of  ministering  to  them  both,  as 
they  went  down  gradually  and  gently,  to  the  last  hour.  Mrs. 
Gurley  preceded  her  husband  some  three  months,  trusting 
only  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  and  yielding  herself  up, 
calmly  and  without  murmuring,  to  the  holy  will  of  God.  Mr. 
Gurley,  though  in  great  bodily  and  mental  feebleness,  yet 
comprehended  the  whole  situation.  The  promises  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  prayers  offered  by  his  bedside  seemed  to  be 
most  intelligently  enjoyed  by  him  to  the  very  last. 

On  the  30th  of  July  last  he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus,  and  awoke, 
we  need  not  doubt,  in  the  midst  of  that  more  perfect  home 
which  our  Saviour  has  prepared  for  those  that  love  Him. 
Before  this  he  has  met  again  his  glorified  wife  and  the  eleven 
children  who  preceded  them  to  glory. 

I  am  glad  for  thee,  my  brother,  and  very  pleasant  is  the 
prospect  of  meeting  thee  above.     Amen. 


19 

TO  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  "LIFE  OF  ASHMUN." 

BY   GEORGE    HILL. 

Thy  task  is  o'er,  a  monument  thoa  here 

Hast  built,  wherein  the  memory  of  him, 
Whose  tribute  rightly  were  a  nation's  tear, 

Shall,  like  a  star  no  earth-born  vapors  dim, 
Survive,  embalmed  like  relics  in  perfumes. 
Or  regal  dust  in  Cyclopean  tombs. 
I  met  thee  in  life'.s  early  day,  and  still 

Have  watched  thy  course — too  long,  tlirough  years  gone  by, 
Stealing  unheard,  yet,  as  the  Alpine  rill 

Swells  to  the  torrent,  destined  to  a  high 
And  loud  celebrity,  the  glorious  crown 

He  wins,  who  strives  truth,  virtue,  to  promote; 
And  long  shall  Afric  in  her  heart  enthrone 

Thy  worth,  thy  words  long  treasure  in  her  thought. 


MINUTE  OF  WASHINGTON  CITY  PRESBYTERY. 

The  following  minute  was  adopted  by  the  Washington  City- 
Presbytery,  tit  its  meeting  October  8,  1872,  viz: 

"The  Presbytery  would  record  on  their  minutes  the  fact, 
that  since  their  last  stated  meeting,  and  on  the  30th  of  July, 
1872,  their  brother,  Ralph  Randolph  Gurley,  departed  this 
life,  in  the  full  faith  and  comfort  of  the  Gospel.  Mr.  Gurley 
was  a  licentiate  of  the  Baltimore  Presbytery,  and  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Presbytery  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  when  it 
was  originally  constituted  in  1823 — forty-nine  years  ago.  In 
the  many  years  which  have  since  passed,  he  had  seen  all  the 
original  members  of  that  Presbytery  finish  their  labors  on 
earth,  and  enter  upon  their  heavenly  reward. 

"Though  never  ordained  or  installed  as  pastor  over  any 
particular  church,  j'et  his  connection  with  the  churches  of  the 
Presbytery  was  of  the  most  intimate  character;  and  his  ser- 
vices in  the  pulpit  were  most  eagerly  sought  and  greatly  de- 
lighted in  by  Chi-istians  of  all  the  evangelical  denominations. 
Before  the  failure  of  his  strength,  his  labors  were  very  abund- 
ant also  among  the  poor  of  Washington — preaching  with  great 


20 

zeal  and  acceptance  in  the  colored  churches,  at  the  Poor-house, 
and  in  the  .Tail  and  Penitentiary.  He  visited  the  sick,  the  poor, 
and  frequently  officiated  at  the  funerals  of  those  who  were 
destitute  of  a  pastor.  By  such  laboi's,  and  the  great  gentle- 
ness and  pure  benevolence  of  his  character,  he  endeared  him- 
self to  all  classes,  and  his  memory  is  very  fragrant  to  thousands 
who  have  witnessed,  if  they  have  not  shared  in,  his  ministries 
of  love. 

"Presbytery  would  also  bear  witness  to  the  wisdom,  fidelity, 
and  unwavering  resolution  with  which,  for  more  than  half  a 
century,  Mr.  Grurley  devoted  his  great  powers  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  colored  race.  The  American  Colonization  Society, 
with  whose  plans  and  labors  he  was  so  long  and  intimately 
identified,  and  the  flourishing  Republic  of  Liberia,  whose  con- 
stitution of  Government  he  originally  drafted,  and  whose  pro- 
gress has  been  watched  over  and  promoted  so  successfully  by 
his  self-denying  and  untiring  toil,  are  his  enduring  monument. 
Though  prostrated  by  severe  illness  for  many  years  past,  he 
still  retained  his  connection  with  the  American  Colonization 
Society  as  Honorary  Secretary.  His  faith  in  the  great  scheme 
of  African  Colonization  and  in  the  glorious  future  of  Liberia 
never  failed.  In  all  the  years  of  his  physical  prostration,  as 
in  the  sad  bereavements  experienced  in  his  family  circle,  (his 
wife  and  eleven  children  having  preceded  him  to  the  grave,) 
his  Christian  character  shone  out  in  great  beauty.  Submis- 
sive gentleness,  unchanging  patience,  accompanied  b}'  a  firm 
reliance  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  his  only  hope  for  pardon 
and  eternal  life,  made  his  sick-room  a  pleasant  resort  for  his 
Christian  friends,  and  his  death  only  an  entrance  into  the 
everlastino;  kini>;dom. 

"We  sympathize  verj?^  deeply  with  the  members  of  his  be- 
reaved family  who  still  survive,  and  feel  that  we  share  largely 
in  the  honor  which  such  a  life  and  character  have  conferred 
on  them  and  on  the  Presbyterian  Church.  'Blessed  are  the 
dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth:  yea,  saith  the 
Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works 
do  follow  them.' " 

A  true  copy  :  T.  B.  McFalls, 

Stated  Clerk. 


OBITUARY  OF  MRS.  GURLEY. 


Died  in  Washington  City,  April  27th,  1872,  Mrs.  Eliza 
McLellan  Gurley,  the  wife  of  Rev.  R.  R.  Gnrley,  in  the  six- 
tieth year  of  her  age. 

Mrs.  Gnrley  came  to  Washington  as  a  bride  nearly  fortj'^-five 
years  since,  and  has  thus  been  a  resident  among  us  for  almost 
half  a  century.  In  passing  from  us  to  the  grave,  she  leaves  a 
large  circle  of  deeply-attached  friends,  who  are  reconciled  to 
their  loss  only  by  the  reflection  that  she  has  laid  down  the 
burden  of  life  here  to  enter  into  the  perfect  rest  of  heaven. 

Her  character  was  one  of  ram  excellence.  To  remarkable 
beauty  of  person  she  united  such  sweetness  of  disposition  and 
refinement  and  grace  of  manners,  that  all  were  attracted  to 
her.  Her  mind  was  as  bright  with  intelligence  as  her  heart 
was  full  of  pure  affection.  In  the  relations  of  wife  and  mother, 
she  was  the  idol  of  her  husband,  and  the  unfailing  source  of 
happiness  to  her  children.  Of  her  numerous  children,  only 
two  survive  her:  the  rest,  some  in  very  tender  3'ears,  and 
BOme  in  the  maturity  of  their  powers,  having  preceded  her  to 
the  tomb.  Hut,  in  all  these  circumstances  of  sorrow,  her  gen- 
tle submission  and  uncomplaining  patience  proved  her  confi- 
dence in  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  that  Father  who  directs 
all  our  affairs.  Her  own  experience  of  sorrow  did  not  lead 
her  to  gloom  and  forgetfulness  of  the  grief  of  others.  It,  on 
the  contrary,  seemod  to  lead  her  out  of  her  own  home  circle 
into  the  tenderost  sympathy  with  other  desolated  homes. 
Hence  she  was  found  so  often  in  the  abodes  of  poverty,  and  in 
the  midst  of  sickness  and  of  death,  out  of  her  own  compara- 
tively slender  purse  supplying  the  immediate  wants  of  the 
suffering,  and  ministering  to  them  with  her  loving  presence 
and  kind  words  of  sympathy  and  encouragement.  The  bless- 
ing of  him  who  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  her,  and  she 


22 

caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy.  "She  was  a  mother 
to  the  poor,  and  the  cause  that  she  knew  not  she  searched  out." 

There  was  a  brief  period  of  life  when  great  physical  pros- 
tration, united  with  a  native  distrust  and  depreciation  of  her- 
self, led  her  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  her  own  Christian 
character,  and  she  walked  in  the  midst  of  darkness  and  de- 
spair. It  seemed  for  a  time,  indeed,  as  if  her  reason  would  be 
overwhelmed  by  the  mighty  waves  that  rolled  over  her.  But 
careful  and  skillful  nursing  gradually  restored  her  health,  and 
a  clearer  apprehension  of  the  infinite  grace  of  God  in  the  Gos- 
pel of  His  Son  led  her  to  a  cheerful  hope  of  Divine  favor  and 
that  sweet  and  abiding  peace  which  has  so  characterized  the 
past  ten  or  fifteen  years  of  her  life.  To  her  most  intimate 
friends  how  much  like  the  Saviour  Himself  has  she  seemed  to 
be!  What  gentleness  in  her  ways!  How  charitable  in  her 
judgment  of  others!  How  thoughtful  of  the  wants  and  con- 
venience of  those  who  ministered  to  her!  How  self- forgetful 
in  her  plans — showing  that  she  was  in  deep  sympathy  with 
Him  who  said,  "I  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister." 

The  last  weeks  of  her  life  only  brought  into  clearer  view 
these  Christian-like  traits  of  character.  The  promises  of  the 
Gospel  were  taken  into  her  heart  more  confidingly  than  ever, 
and  the  sting  of  death  was  taken  entirely  away.  When  not 
able  to  speak,  except  in  a  low  whisper,  and  her  eyes  were 
closed  upon  all  earthly  objects,  her  ears  were  still  open  to 
every  voice  that  spoke  to  her,  and  her  mind  grasped  every 
thought  that  was  uttered.  As  her  soul  thus  rose  superior  to 
the  weakness  of  her  body,  it  seemed  to  assert  its  divine  origin 
and  prove  its  own  immortalit3\  Her  weeping  friends  looked 
on  in  joyful  triumph  as  she  spoke  of  Christ  as  her  own  Ee- 
deemer,  and  committed  herself  entirel}^  to  Him  to  conduct  her 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  while  all  felt  the 
truth  and  pertinency  of  the  words  of  the  officiating  minister 
of  Christ,  pronounced  over  her  remains  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
dead:  "Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  hence- 
forth: Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their 
labors;  and  their  works  do  follow  them." 


^liimmmiMST"'  Seminary  Libi 


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